Henry sandiiam



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HENRY SANDHAM, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO GEORGE T. ANDREW, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF MAKING COLORED AND OTHER PRINTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 439,566, dated October 28, 1890.

Application filed May 2 1890. Serial No. 350,363. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY SANDHAM, now residing in Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, a subjectof Vic- 5 toria, Queen of Great Britain, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Method of Making Colored and other Prints, of which the following is a full and exact description.

The common method of making a colored print is to first draw, paint, or otherwise create the complete subject which is subsequently to be produced by printing, and to then transfer to the plates or blocks used in printing the said subject as a whole, generally by some photographic method or tracing; and whether the printing is done from one plate or block in one color or a number of plates or blocks in different colors or tones it leaves the preparation and cutting of the :0 block or plate to be guided and controlled by the engraver or artisan, who is obliged to take from the photograph or tracing of the completed subject as much of it as is to be reproduced by a certain block or plate and then use his own judgment in applying to the cut the finish, technique, and artistic skill, and the result is that, having to work according to their own ideas of what is needed, the reproduction as a rule is not satisfactory and is expensive and requires very skilled workmen to produce a desirable result, frequently departing in a marked manner from the original conception of the artist.

WVhile by my method it may be desirable to 5 prepare a subject as a whole in the first instance, I do not use such subject in the material parts of the process for its reproduction; but on the contrary I make for each block or plate to be used or for each particu- 0 lar tone or half-tone to be printed in the print a separate sketch or drawing of that particular color, tone, or detail, and execute it in such form, style, &c., as such particular section or part of the whole may require, in

.5 order to be artistically and properly represented as a part of the whole. These separate sketches and details furnish, it may be said, infallible guides for the engraver or artisan to work from, each one being complete in and of itself and not being mixed or associated with the other features of the subject, so that the engraver or artisan is enabled to transfer by photography or in any other way from each sketch to the block or plate which is to print that section of the subject all the touches and characteristics of the artists work, the detail of which has been carefully prepared in advance with especial reference to its association and its effect with the other subelements or details of the subject, and theblocks, plates, or other printingsurfaces having transferred to them these separated or independent complete subdetails are then used in. printing as in the ordinary method of type-printing. '65

This method of preparing the subject removes from the engraver or wood-cutter the necessity of determining certain things which belong more or only to the artist to determine, and enables an intelligent and artistic co-op- 7o eration of details, coloring, and drawing to be obtained in the print which cannot be obtained where the blocks, &c.,-are prepared by the methods now in vogue. To illustrate, suppose I desire to represent by printing an old vase or to reproduce a picture of the vase. I first divide the subject into the number of parts or details which will require separate or independent blocks or plates for printing. I then make an independent sketch of each of the said details, representing in each sketch the various qualities which that part of the subject which it illustrates should have, and these separate sketches or drawings are also prepared with especial regard to their co-operation and harmonizing as a whole, and they are then transferred by photography or in any other of the common ways to the blocks or plates which are to print them, the blocks being reproduced by half-tone or process to print each subject.

This invention is especially applicable in reproducing water-colors, paintings, and other subjects in color and permits of great range in the employment and mingling of half-tones, 9 5 tints, (Sac.

It will be seen that the individual drawings or sketches may be made in any medium on any texture or-paper, and that the reproduction by photography gives to each block all the peculiarities of the original drawing, thus combining when printed in colors any and every quality desired, and thereby meets a long felt want in connection with book-illus tration, &c.

I would say that this invention applies particularly to the modern half'tone and process printing, Where the subject is transferred to the printing-plate chemically or by photography and treatment by acids, &c., to produce a facsimile design upon the plate automatically, it may be said, or Without necessitating engraving by hand, and the characteristic of each separate section or sketch will thus be accurately transferred and reproduced on each plate.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States- The method of printing subjects in colors or shades, comprising the making of separate sketches or drawings of the various parts of the subject requiring separate printing in its reproduction, which sketches and drawings serve as guides in the preparation of the printing surfaces upon the plates or printingblocks, and which are transferred to said plates or printing-blocks in the ordinary way, and printing from said plates, blocks, or other printing-surfaces to produce a print made up of such independent or separate sketches or drawings, as and for the purpose described.

HENRY SANDHAM.

Witnesses.

F. F. RAYMOND, 2d, FRED. DOLAN. 

